Weekly Wrap Up: Book Club Book!

This week has been difficult because we have all been so sick.  The flu struck hard and has been taking a while to leave. :(  Seat work was scarce due to illness.  I ended up reading a lot (in between coughing fits).  We were able to finish up The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, which is this months pick for book club. We've had great fun with this book.  I am constantly amazed by what a brilliant author Lewis was.  The imagery he uses to draw out deep spiritual truths is incredible.  I love that he values children enough to write this way.  Children pick up on these themes far more then we give them credit for.

The kids love the Narnia Series, and I have read a loud most of them together with the eldest two.  The last couple novels, I had them listen to an audio version of the books.  Heather has listened to the The Silver Chair on audio but I am having her sit in on the readings anyway.  She bucked me at first saying she had previously read it but true to form, she is absorbed in the readings as I do them (I knew that would happen! hehe).  I also wanted to add in ROAR by Heather Kopp with David Kopp.  This book came recommended to my by a friend and after having a look through it at her home I knew I wanted to add it to our library resources.  You can get them new or used on amazon. We paid around $10 for ours. 

 This is a beautiful companion book to the C.S. Lewis novels.  It has five different sections, including some biographical information on Lewis, thoughts and reflects for each of the Narnia books from The Magician's Nephew to The Last Battle broken down in chapter by chapter format, final review or 'exam' for the books, a section devoted to explaining why Narnia is an allegory, the use of magic etc and lastly, Roar Fact Files. I have been reading through parts of the book this past weekend.  The more I read it the more I love it!  In terms of our read a loud time; we'll be reading the chapter from The Silver Chair first, ending it with the companion chapter from Roar.  The chapter from Roar gives a synopsis from its Narnian chapter along with definitions of words from the chapter, 'grown up' thoughts, a verse containing wisdom related to the chapter and some stimulating questions to chat about.  I don't usually do read a louds in this format as the kids have obtained excellent narration skills but this book is worth it!  I wanted to draw more out of C.S. Lewis' works.  They are jammed packed with illustration, imagery and critical thinking skills, beautifully written and incredibly thought provoking.  I may have them do some journaling with this one too.  I haven't completely thought that through as yet.

This is also an eye catching book, its lay out and illustrations are pleasing to the eye.  I really am impressed all the way around.  I am also hoping that I get some inspiration from the book for an activity to do at book club. :)

We are linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up & HammockTracks: It's a Wrap!  I hope you have all had a great week. :)

Breathing Life into the Lost Arts

When I was a young girl I enjoyed doing all the gentle home arts like baking, knitting, crocheting, sewing, and cross stitch.  My Mom taught me how to crochet and two elderly neighbours taught me to knit and cross stitch.  It pleased me to learn a new skill and then create something beautiful and unique with that skill. The more I progressed in my new found art the more I realized that I could make gifts for others.  I loved picking something out that would suit the receiver, the colours, the pattern - I would spend the time to get just the 'right' thing. :)

As the years passed I have picked up and put down these skills at will.  As the mother of babies and small children I lost touch with these gentle arts but as my children have become older I have carved out more time to once again embrace these time honoured arts.  I feel like we have a responsibility to breath life into these 'lost arts'.  In a world that is fast paced, full of gadgets, and the ability to easily buy items these skills can become lost; if not for some intentional care to preserve them.   I asked my mother to give me a refresher in crochet and before I knew it, I was well on my way to creating some pretty items from hats to shawls to blankets/afghans.  It's evolved into more then just a skill for me.  I often use the time to pray for the recipient of the gift.  Whether it is a prayer shawl or baby blanket, the stitches that make the item up have been sown with prayer.  

I have taught my daughter to crochet, knit and sew as well.  There is something so satisfying about working with your hands and while we work we connect as girls, as mom and daughter.  That time becomes precious and I have watched my little girl create her own patterns and make things to give to family and friends.  I taught one of her friends to crochet and she has taken off with her own creations as well.  It's amazing to watch them soar with this skill.  And they, in turn, crochet together and chat together while working on their projects.  I, myself, have some friends who also crochet and sew.  It is so nice to get together and chat while we work and explore patterns.  We share beautiful patterns, chat about the things we can make, encourage one another with compliments and the time it takes to show a new stitch or talk about a yarn. And while we are doing all this we are passing down the lost arts, beautiful arts that time honours.

Below are a couple of shawls I made over the past couple weeks.  I finished off a beautiful popcorn stitch afghan last month.  You can view it here.  

Shawl

Shawl

This is a beautiful plate warmer my daughter made for me.

For this post we are linked up with HammockTracks: It's a Wrap. 

Wordless Wednesday

Book Sharing Monday: ROAR by Heather Kopp with David Kopp

For this months book club we have been reading:  The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  The kids love the Narnia Series, and I have read a loud most of them together with the eldest two.  The last couple novels, I had them listen to an audio version of the books.  Heather has listened to the The Silver Chair on audio but I am having her sit in on the readings anyway.  She bucked me at first saying she had previously read it but true to form, she is absorbed in the readings as I do them (I knew that would happen! hehe).  I also wanted to add in ROAR by Heather Kopp with David Kopp.  This book came recommended to my by a friend and after having a look through it at her home I knew I wanted to add it to our library resources.  You can get them new or used on amazon. We paid around $10 for ours. 

 This is a beautiful companion book to the C.S. Lewis novels.  It has five different sections, including some biographical information on Lewis, thoughts and reflects for each of the Narnia books from The Magician's Nephew to The Last Battle broken down in chapter by chapter format, final review or 'exam' for the books, a section devoted to explaining why Narnia is an allegory, the use of magic etc and lastly, Roar Fact Files. I have been reading through parts of the book this past weekend.  The more I read it the more I love it!  In terms of our read a loud time; we'll be reading the chapter from The Silver Chair first, ending it with the companion chapter from Roar.  The chapter from Roar gives a synopsis from its Narnian chapter along with definitions of words from the chapter, 'grown up' thoughts, a verse containing wisdom related to the chapter and some stimulating questions to chat about.  I don't usually do read a louds in this format as the kids have obtained excellent narration skills but this book is worth it!  I wanted to draw more out of C.S. Lewis' works.  They are jammed packed with illustration, imagery and critical thinking skills, beautifully written and incredibly thought provoking.  I may have them do some journaling with this one too.  I haven't completely thought that through as yet.

This is also an eye catching book, its lay out and illustrations are pleasing to the eye.  I really am impressed all the way around.  I am also hoping that I get some inspiration from the book for an activity to do at book club. :)

Weekly Wrap Up: Newspaper Field Trip

For most of the week we have been sick.  I was highly suspicious on Monday that my youngest was getting ill because she was crying and highly emotional.  I kept thinking: "hmmmm, looks like she may get sick soon."  And that's exactly what happened.  We were able to school until Wednesday and then it hit us all hard.  So the rest of the week we read a loud and rested.   I'll share a few things we did at the first of the week though.

This week we started in on our 'prayer map'. We have the map of Canada up to refer to during our history and geography time but I decided we would use it as a cue to pray for our Country in the mornings as well.  We are using the book The Power of a Praying Nation by Stormie Omartian to help guide us through some prayer time.  We began reading through it together earlier this week, praying for our Country in general terms.  We'll get more specific as the school year progresses. 

Our map and book.

The highlight of our week was Wednesday's field trip to the local newspaper.  One of the homeschool Moms in our community gives freely of her own time to organize field trips for us.  She is incredible and we are thankful to her for organizing these events for us! 

It was just Heather and I as I couldn't bring Graham because he was so sick.  He was really disappointed and asked me to take lots of pictures. He had been very keen to see how the newspaper goes out!  I was able to take lots of pictures and even some videos for him.  When we got home he curled up on the couch; looked through the pictures and watched the videos. :)

The field trip was amazing.  We got to see the printing press (five stories tall), how the paper is produced, where they store the newsprint, and how it gets to the press.  The guide told us how/when the building was built, what country the printing press came from and all sorts of other interesting things.  The tour guide was amazing.  The press was not running as they go to press late at night - after midnight.  They had one room where they put the flyers together and that was fascinating.

Heather looks through a magnifying glass at how the ink looks after it is  'dropped' on to the  newsprint.

This is the sound proof room that a worker watched the press from.  He uses the computer to make sure everything is running smoothly.  It is made entirely of glass so he can see the press easily.  Right beside this area is a door that gives him quick access to the press so he can take care of any problems as they arise.

The press is five stories tall!  Those big circular objects below are how the newsprint arrives .  They each weigh a ton.  

And of course, Valentine's Day was on Thursday.  We were all feeling rough that day but decided to at least make our cupcakes anyway! :)  We put out their chocolate and a little gift for them at their place on the table the night before.  That way when they get up they can see their gift awaiting them.  My one little guy didn't get up till 11 though. 

So hopefully be the end of the weekend we will all be feeling right as rain again.  As it stand now we are all still pretty sick. :(  Hope you all had a great week! 

We are linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up and Hammock Tracks: It's a Wrap.  

Valentines Cup Cakes

     We are all feeling sick with coughs, but we decided that we would at least do our cupcakes today, even if we can't have all the other treats with it! I bought some tin foil cup cake heart molds and we made these up with a yummy mix from the XO Baking Co.: Cupcake Mix (they sell yummy, wholesome Gluten free goodies). 

Fresh out of the oven and their foil wraps! 

I made some cake decorating icing; two colours, a white and pink.  We took out our decorating tools and went to town on the little hearts.  I love moments like these!  They are so much fun and it's great to spend a special afternoon.  We took a break from school to celebrate this afternoon. :)

G working on his!

Heather adding some flare with her hearts! 

The finished product. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Book Sharing Monday: The Power of a Praying Nation

I got this book to help guide us through some prayer time for our Country during our first fruits in the morning. Stormie Omartian has written many books on the power of prayer, including: The Power of a Praying Wife, The Power of a Praying Woman, The Power of a Praying Parent and The Power of a Praying Husband.  The Power of a Praying Nation isn't as long as the others but it is just as thought provoking and powerfully written. I think it is very important to teach the value of prayer, so I have intentionally made it a fundamental part of each day, beginning it and ending it with prayer. 

 I'll likely read parts of the actual chapter for the kids and I in the morning and then follow it up with the prayer at the end of the chapters.  We'll cycle through it for the remainder of the year. We will probably need to modify parts as it is written from an American perspective.

The book!

The idea came to me when I was thinking about how to utilize the Canadian Political Map I placed on our table top under some heavy gauge plastic.  We have been using it during our history and geography lessons.  I had a World Map on the table top when we were doing an introduction to World History.  For that map we had collected missionary cards and placed them under the plastic with the map.  We then marked off on the World Map where they were serving and prayed for the missionaries.  For this one we will pray for our Country, our leaders, law enforcement, our schools and so forth.   We got our book today so we'll be starting in on that come morning devotions! :)

The book and map!  This is where we spend our time in the morning.  Great visual reminder!

Wordless Wednesday

Crocheted Blackberry Salad Striped Afghan

I have done a number of crochet projects over the past couple years.  The majority of them have been prayer shawls and baby blankets.  I haven't made anything for myself so I decided to make an afghan for cuddling on the couch with.  I had made a couple of baby blankets with a beautiful pattern a friend sent me called: Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Blanket so I decided I wanted to make an afghan with this pattern.  I was happy to find that she also had a link to a Blackberry Salad Striped Afghan she had posted; saved me trying to figure out dimensions.  What I love about this pattern is that I used all the left over yarn that went into all the projects I had made over the past couple years.  Not only did I use up left over yarn, I made an afghan of memories, so to speak.  Crocheting is more then a mere pass time for me.  The projects I work on for people are specific to them and I often use the time to pray for them while I work away.  

I love the way this blanket turned out!  I used yarn randomly. It doesn't really follow any particular pattern. 

View of the afghan spread out.

 A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a couple of moms while waiting for my kids at Nature Class.  One of them shared that she was writing down the story of how each significant Christmas ornament came to hang on their tree.  I happened to be working on this blanket at the time and we talked about how if we don't share the stories of how things came to be the story is lost!  One of my friends suggested that I keep a common place notebook about my crochet projects as I had shared why this project was significant to me.  I thought that was a wonderful idea!  So I bought a common place notebook and decided to go back over the projects I had done and write them down.  I enjoy writing so this idea had great appeal to me. 

This was a bigger project so I was happy to have it done but it was worth every stitch! :)

My 'memory' afghan and common place notebook.

Afghan all folded up! 

Book Club: The Bronze Bow

The high light of our week was most certainly book club!  I wanted to share about it.  The kids and I are having a fantastic time with it! :)

The Bronze Bow

We have read a lot of wonderful books so far for our book club but this one, by far, was my favorite and some of the kids felt the same way. :)

The Bronze Bow is historical fiction at its best!  No wonder it has high reviews and has won the Newbery Medal.  This author has successfully woven together a story that touches the heart of any reader; young and old.  The Bronze Bow is set in Israel in the time of Jesus, when the Romans occupied the land but allowed the Jews  freedom to practice their religion.  It is about the plight of young man, Daniel, who is bound and determined to avenge his father and Uncle's death by the hands of the Romans.  Long have they awaited the promise of the Messiah, the one who would rescue them from Roman Rule.  Daniel has put his faith in a man named, Rosh, who lives on the mountain promising to lead a revolt against the Romans.  Daniel is so consumed with revenge that he is willing to follow Rosh wherever he goes, even if it means stealing from his kinsmen to do so.  The book has some incredible characters, including friends he meets along the way and of course he watched Jesus' ministry unfold and must make a choice to embrace forgiveness or to live and die by the sword. 

Incredible book!  I cried like a baby the last chapter.  We laughed a lot because I couldn't keep it together in some parts to read. lol

Book Club 

Book Club was amazing today.  The kids were so eager to share and participate.  I always open with a mini geography lesson and time period chat.  I use the globe and atlas maps (Usborne World Atlas & Scholastic Canada World Atlas) to show them where in the world this story took place.  I passed the globe around showing them where we live, which ocean is between us and Israel and where the country is). We spent some time talking about political maps verses relief maps.  After we are done setting the stage of where, we talk about when in history the events occurred.  After I feel like we have set the stage for this we move on to talking about the characters and plot.  We also read a little bit from the book  Window on the World about the people and history of Israel. 

We talked about who were their favorite and least favorite characters and why, what parts of the book impacted them the most, what the theme of the book was, and any lessons or morals the book holds for us to take into our own lives. I am truly blown away by their observations and the depth of their thinking with some of their comments.  We get the occasional sillies but for the most part the kids dig deep and are ready to share with each other.  It shows me that they are developing keen critical thinking skills.

Once we are finished up with our chat (takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour), we do a pre-arranged activity.  I had been wanting to do some map work with them with the last book but it didn't work out so I seized the opportunity to do it with this read a loud.  I got the idea from a web site listing activities to do for The Bronze Bow and added some of my own ideas in there. We drew and painted a relief map of Israel!  I showed them a relief map of Israel, explaining some geography and how to read a relief map, with valley's, mountains, fertile ground and the like.  The kids had art canvas' and acrylic paints in green, blue, brown and yellow to work with to create their own maps.  They free hand drew a copy of a map I handed out to each of them along with their paints and canvas'.  I was very pleased with the response from this activity.  The kids took their time and did some amazing work.  So proud of all of them for working hard on their maps! I find it  interesting what the kids draw and paint and how they use their artistic skills in various ways.

We finished off book club with some traditional Jewish honey cake (see recipe: here) and black olives that would likely have been used over in that country.  I made the cake Gluten free as we have issues with wheat/gluten in our home. It was very good and the kids enjoyed it, asking for another piece.  :)

It was a great afternoon.  Yet another good club!  This month's pick is The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  I will be posting about this book and book club next month! :)

Here are the pics:

Filling in the final touches of her map.

Taking a little break to eat some traditional Jewish honey cakes.

After forming out the details for their maps, they began painting them.

Working away! :)

Two littles (not involved in book club), enjoy the honey cake! 

Some of the maps they did!  Good job kiddos!

We are linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers & HammockTracks this week!

Weekly Wrap Up: Time lines & More Poetry Tea Time

This week was a series of ups and downs.  I highly suspect cabin fever as the cause.  A friend of mine reminded me that we tend to get the homeschool blah's around the last week of January, first week of February.  The weather has been so dark, the sun noticeably absent, it's also been raining a fair amount so my very active kids have been home bound for a bit.  They each have evening activities they participate in, ball hockey, youth group and girls club but they miss the out doors and are looking forward to bike rides and park play dates that will come with the spring. :)  So we combated the grumpies at times but all in all the week ended well.    

Our week started out with the power lines on our street being out for a bit while they worked on them.  It was quite dark as it was overcast and raining outside so we lit some candles and did our work by candle light! They actually thought that was really neat, it was a nice way to start off the week. hehe  

Geography/History

I put up our Political Canada Map on the table top this week and covered it with a clear heavy gauge plastic.    This will make it easier to refer to historical events when we read about them during our history time.  I will also be using the map as a visual reminder to pray for our country and the leaders of our country, including the Prime Minster, Provincial Premiers, party leaders and so forth.  We'll use the book The Power of a Praying Nation, to help guide our prayers for our country.  

We have delved into some explores this week: Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain.  We've been using Donna Ward's All Inclusive Canadian History Bundle to help us out with our studies.  The two books we used this week:  The Kids Book of Canadian History and The Kids Book of Canadian Exploration are wonderful books, with great illustrations and just enough information to give the kids a complete picture of historical events.

The kids have been using the time line in Courage and Conquest to help keep Canada's historical events in order.  They have been colouring the pictures and gluing them into their Canadian History Sketch/Notebooks.  

Graham working on his historical time line

Heather working on her historical time line

 Poetry Tea Time

I did not plan on doing Poetry Tea Time this week but my daughter asked me if she could set it all up and do it herself as a surprise for her siblings.  I could not refuse such initiative so I let her have it!  She prepared the table all herself.  We had a great time and it was a pleasure to end the day this way!  If you are interested in reading more about what we do and the poetry we read during this time see my post:  Poetry Tea Time.

The table Heather set up for our tea!

We are nearly finished our read a loud The Bronze Bow!  It's been a wonderful book, the kids love it. My 11 year old took it to her room during quiet reading time and finished it off but I still needed to read it to Graham.  I am looking forward to our Book Club on Monday and will post a review and the activities we did on Monday. :)  Book Club is one of the highlights of our month.

I hope you had a great week, and a wonderful weekend.

~ Cindy

This post is linked up with Weird Unsocalized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap Up & HammockTracks!

Join in the fun and post your own weekly wrap up, a good way to finish off the week.